Andrey Kurkov; Translated by George Bird

Viktor - last seen in Death and the Penguin fleeing Mafia vengeance
on an Antarctica-bound flight booked for Penguin Misha - seizes a
heaven-sent opportunity to return to Kiev with a new identity.
Clear now as to the enormity of abandoning Misha, then convalescent
from a heart-transplant, Viktor determines to make amends. Viktor
falls in with a Mafia boss who engages him to help in his election
campaign, then introduces him to men who might further his search
for Misha, said to be in a private zoo in Chechnya. What ensues is
for Viktor both a quest and an odyssey of atonement, and, for the
reader, an experience as rich, topical and illuminating as Death
and the Penguin.